Collaborations
by Pouncer
Summary: Rodney had been brought in to try to lower Atlantis Shipping's maintenance costs, but he was short of ideas and time. Anachronistic alternate universe. Pairing: Rodney McKay and Radek Zelenka. No spoilers.


Collaborations

By Pouncer

"Dr. McKay! Dr. McKay!" Mr. Kavanagh's voice sounded nasal and obsequious amidst the clamor of the docks.

Rodney sighed and left off his examination of the hull of the _Alexandria_. She was a good ship, well suited for transporting cotton to the textile mills of Rhode Island. The problem was the spread of the railroads, stealing tonnage from Atlantis Shipping. Rodney had been brought in to try to lower maintenance costs, but he was short of ideas and time.

"What is it?" he asked Kavanagh, trying not to snap.

"That chemist Mrs. Weir wrote arrived early. She's busy entertaining Colonel Caldwell and needs your help."

That Elizabeth would turn to _Rodney_ during a social crisis showed just how stressed she must be.

"Yes, yes. Did you bring the carriage?"

Kavanagh nodded, and Rodney followed him through the crowd, careful not to turn his ankles on the cobblestones.

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The main offices of Atlantis Shipping were inland from the river. After her husband's death in the War, Elizabeth believed that her interests would be better served closer to the Union encampments. Her flirtation with Colonel Caldwell was a delicate waltz of lure and retreat, and so far she'd managed to parlay his favor into advantageous deals. So far.

Rodney shed Kavanagh's irritating presence at the door, glad of the cool interior after the bright sun of the streets. Aiden Ford, Elizabeth's secretary, looked grateful to see Rodney.

"I'm glad you're here, Doc," Ford said. "Mr. Zelenka's been cooling his heels for an hour, and there's only so much sweet tea Miss Cadman can serve him."

Rodney's mouth twitched upward. He could do with some tea himself. "Where is he?"

"Back office. Thanks." Ford turned back to his accounts, dipping a quill into an ink pot.

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Laura seemed to be doing a fair job of diverting Zelenka, if the laughter emerging from the room was any indication.

"Am I not needed?" Rodney asked, just to see her blond head jump.

"Oh! Doctor McKay, of course you're most welcome." Laura batted her eyelashes at Rodney, but he was immune to her wiles. "This is Mr. Zelenka, newly arrived from _Bohemia_." Her voice was breathless with excitement. "And Mr. Zelenka, this is Doctor McKay, Atlantis Shipping's head of research."

Zelenka was a small man with crazed hair and wire-rimmed glasses perched on the end of his nose. His suit was black, and slightly rumpled. He'd stood upon Rodney's entrance and now gave a quick bow while clicking his bootheels together.

Rodney blinked. Then extended a hand to shake. "Welcome to Savannah. I know Mrs. Weir has been eager for your assistance."

"My pleasure, I assure you." His accent was soft but noticeable, and the hair on Rodney's neck shivered at the sound.

"Have you settled into rooms?" he asked, attempting to get practicalities over with. "Or would you prefer to get straight to business?"

"Business, please," Zelenka replied. "I've engaged rooms at Mrs. Mal Doran's boarding house."

"Ah," Rodney said. "That's where I am as well." The Widow Mal Doran was notorious among Savannah society, but her establishment was clean and well-run and inclined to look the other way when Rodney's experiments came home with him.

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Rodney ushered Zelenka through the offices, explaining how Atlantis Shipping was run.

"The problem is how long it's taking to repair the ships. They make runs between Savannah and the Northeast, as well as other ports, and barnacles grow on the hulls. We have to put them into dry dock, scrape them down, and apply new caulk and varnish. I've come up with some efficiencies for the first parts of the process, but the time it takes the caulk and varnish to dry just won't come down."

Zelenka nodded, looking interested.

"Of course, the turpentine used in the varnish is expensive because of the need to cut down pine trees." Rodney waved his hands. "I've tried several approaches but none of them have come to fruition."

"Well," Zelenka said. "We shall have to see what we can do together."

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Days in workrooms conducting experiments turned into shared dinners at the boarding house. They spent late nights over brandy snifters conversing on scientific advances and the differences between growing up in Bohemia and Canada.

Every so often, Rodney would catch a brief glimpse of Elizabeth whisking around the city with Colonel Caldwell. The look on Captain Sheppard's stubbled face when he returned from his voyage to Baltimore and heard the news was diverting.

"Have they been involved?" Radek asked.

"I wouldn't say _involved_. Sniffing around each other, definitely. He's her best captain, and both of them know it. But he's away most of the year."

Rodney straightened his waistcoat. "Shall we try the new formulation?"

Radek nodded and placed a hand on Rodney's elbow to turn him back to their worktables.

Rodney told himself a whiff of acid caused the shiver.

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Sheppard complained when the _Pegasus_ took weeks to go through maintenance. He was always in the offices during the day, though.

Rodney and Radek wagered on how long it would be before Colonel Caldwell was exiled.

And argued over the best way to boil pine sap to reduce it to turpentine, before falling asleep next to each other on the battered office settee.

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"Elizabeth!" Rodney burst through the door to her office and came to a dead stop.

Sheppard was kissing Elizabeth, bending her backwards with his hands supporting her rib cage. Her hair had come undone from its usual snood and her eyes looked dazed when they turned to Rodney.

"Er. I'll just leave, then," Rodney said, and backed away.

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"How did she take the news?" Radek demanded at Rodney's return to their laboratory.

Rodney collapsed into giggles. "I didn't tell her."

"Why not?" Radek threw his arms into the air. "This breakthrough is just what we needed. And Teyla's ideas about harvesting sap without killing pines – Elizabeth needs to know so she can approach Mr. O'Neill."

"Elizabeth," Rodney said, and his voice quavered, "is occupied with affairs of the heart at the moment."

Radek looked over, gaze sharp. His eyebrows raised in a question.

"You need to pay up." Rodney smiled and bounced up and down, just a little bit.

Radek cursed in Czech.

Rodney bought him an extra drink that night after dinner.

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The dance to celebrate Elizabeth's engagement to Captain Sheppard, and Atlantis Shipping's best year since the War, was held on a broad stretch of land in the crook of the Savannah River.

Elizabeth carried a parasol as she strolled next to her intended, smiling sunnily at all her guests.

"They will be good together, no?" Radek said, sipping at a cup of punch.

Rodney nodded. "And she's going to introduce Colonel Caldwell to some cousin who's visiting, and not opposed to a marriage to a soldier."

"This has been a most enjoyable collaboration, Rodney."

"Yes, it has."

Rodney had been thinking about that, about the way he and Radek worked together, trading ideas, arguing intently but never with malice. About the way he felt when Radek was near. Rodney ushered Radek away from the spread of food, back among the shielding fronds of an ancient willow tree.

"I was wondering," Rodney began, then stuttered to a halt.

"Wondering what?"

"Well, um. Do you have to leave?" Rodney's heart was beating dull thumps in his chest, and he could feel his fingers trembling. "You've become very dear to me, and –"

Radek's hand on his collar stopped Rodney's words.

"You have become very dear to me, as well, but I had not had the nerve to dream."

Rodney lowered his head to kiss Radek and let hope bloom.

-end-

Notes: pinch hit for Nonesane in the Czech is in the Male ficathon. Prompts were deer (I went with a homonym?), umbrella, river, AU, UST -- relationship. Post-Civil War Savannah bewilders me as much as you. Wikipedia sparked the turpentine idea. I have no doubt that there are many anachronisms, for which I can only plead limited time to fact check and beg your forgiveness.

Disclaimer: transformative work, written for love, not profit.

_Feedback, positive or negative, is as delicious as sweet tea._


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